[Back Talk]

Who’s The Expert About My New Home? Not me.

I enjoyed your ViewPoint column (“Who’s The Expert About My New Home? Not me.”) in March PCT. I just had to comment on a couple issues here about your experience with the PCO after you moved in.

All your points are well taken and obviously missed by this company, but a bigger concern for me as a PCO is the liability that was also ignored. Having contracted with the previous homeowner, I’m assuming there was some sort of an agreement/contract that included the various products that would be used, or may be used over the course of the life of the service. This is the time that homeowner and PCO discuss any health concerns, allergies or any other topic the homeowner would want answers on.

Being from the West Coast we have many laws that require this information through Right To Know, AB3916 and a host of others. As you pointed out, the house is not the customer, you are. So my concern here is the PCO never “checked” with you to see if continued treatment was something YOU wanted, just continued service until the annual fee ran out from the previous owner. We are faced with many liabilities in our industry, so I hope those that take on new tenants and owners remember to update their documentation and contact their new client and go over their service and instill the benefits we can provide and address any concerns.

Mark A. Puglisi, ACE
General Manager and Entomologist
Greenleaf Organic Pest Management
North Hollywood, Calif.
 

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Dan Moreland’s Birgenair View Point

I enjoyed reading your February View Point column (“The tragic case of Birgenair Flight 301”). I could not help but recall conversations we had some years ago at a Copesan Technical Committee meeting. I remember a colleague from Western Exterminator in California describing an incident with nesting wasps getting into air speed indicators (you named these indicators as pitot tubes) that provide critical air speed indications guiding pilots actions that are especially critical on takeoff. Certain planes were sitting on the ground overnight and wasps were getting into the indicator tubes that project off the nose cone of the plane. Our discussion focused on what can be done to prevent this from happening without impacting airfield and flight operations of the equipment. I recall thinking, “WOW! What we do has a significant impact on passenger and air safety.” And can you imagine, little tiny wasps having the potential to bring down huge jet airliners? Who would have thought?

Well considered View Point piece, Dan. Nice job!

Richard Berman
Technical Director
Waltham Services
Waltham, Mass.